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HAWAII, THE GREAT OCEAN CROSSROADS. 



SPEECH 

OF 



HON. HENRY R. GIBSON, 



OF TENNESSEE, 



IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Tuesday, June 14, 1898. 



WASHINGTON. 
I898. 



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*• 

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SPEECH 



HON. HENRY E. GIBSON. 



The House having under consideration the joint resolution (H. Res. 259) to 
provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States- 
Mr. GIBSON said: 

Mr. Speaker: About two thousand j^ears ago there sailed out 
of the Baltic Sea, in the north of Europe, a hardy and adventur- 
ous race of men known as the Vikings, the prows of whose ships 
were turned toward the west. According to the vague history of 
those times, these Vikings seem to have planted themselves first 
on the northern shores of France, where they founded the Kingdom 
of Normandy, or the Northmen, men out of the northern seas. 
Not satisfied with this conquest, they continued their rovings 
westward, and about fifteen hundred years ago ran the prows of 
their ships upon the shores of England, and finally, about one 
thousand years ago, with William the Conqueror at their head, 
landed 60,000 men at Hastings, defeated and killed Harold, the 
English King, and made the British Islands the seat of their em- 
pire. And from that day to this the roving, aggressive, acquisi- 
tive spirit of the Vikings has never ceased to animate the English 
people; and for hundreds of years they have been exploring the 
land and the sea and raising their flag in every part of the world, 
so that, the sun never sets on their possessions. 

THE VIKING SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE. 

After the discovery of America, the English descendants of these 
Vikings, still sailing westward , crossed the wide ocean into this New 
World, and colonized the Atlantic coast of North America. And 
here they founded a new nation, and proclaimed a new evangel 
of human liberty, and flung to the breeze, in sight of men and 
angels, a new banner. 

But the spirit of Viking adventure and Viking daring was still 
raging in their breasts, and the more adventurous of the sons and 
grandsons of those old colonizers continued to move westward , ever 
westward; and climbing and crossing the Alleghany Mountains, 
driving the wild beasts and the Indians before them, occupied the 
coves and the valleys at the headwaters of the Tennessee and the 
Ohio rivers. But still not satisfied, the most adventurous sons of 
these heroic adventurers, chiefly the men who founded the States 
of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, continued to move westward 
until they reached the banks of the mighty Mississippi, the Father 
of Waters. 

And here for a season their steps were stayed. The Mississippi 
was then the western boundary of their country. All the land 
that lay beyond was Spain's. How few of us realize to-day that 
3533 3 



when Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio -were admitted into the 
Union as States all the country between the Mississippi River and 
the Pacific Ocean belonged to Spain! 

WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE. 

But the tide of western emigration was irresistible, and rising 
higher and higher, was about to force its way across the Missis- 
sippi when Spain transferred Louisiana to France and France 
transferred it to the United States. Then the course of empire 
triumphantly resumed its westward way. 

The descendants of the men who rode with Ealeigh over the sea 
now rode with Fremont over the land, and animated by the in- 
vincible spirit of their ancestors, and marching ever westward and 
westward, they crossed the deserts and the plains, penetrated the 
wilderness, climbed the Rocky Mountains, crossed over into Cali- 
fornia, and continuing on at last stood on the shores of the mighty 
Pacific and bathed their burning feet and their parched brows in 
the waters of the sunset sea. There for fifty years have we set 
up the image of Terminus. There have we said was our ne plus 
ultra. There we once thought was the end of our national world. 

But we miscalculated. Our nation has grown and grown. We 
have expanded on all sides and enlarged in all directions. We have 
become a mighty nation with over 70,000,000 of people and nearly 
4,000,000 square miles of land and lake and river and bay. The 
fame and glory of our institutions have filled the earth, the prod- 
ucts of our hands and intellects have penetrated to all lands, our 
ships plow the waters of every sea, and our flag is respected by 
every nation upon the earth. 

THE OLD SPIRIT REVIVED. 

And while we have thus been possessing ourselves of this great 
continent, driving out the wild men and the wild beasts, and lay- 
ing deep and broad and everlasting the foundations of our new 
and better civilization, some had begun to think that the old Vi- 
king spirit of our forefathers had at last died. But that spirit was 
only slumbering, and when the guns of Dewey, thundering at 
Manilla, 10,000 miles away across the Pacific Ocean, sent their 
reverberations from west to east and from east to west, from 
north to south and from south to north, around the whole earth, 
the old spirit of the Vikings awoke and stood on its feet again, 
like a giant refreshed with wine, and with eyes still looking west- 
ward. [Applause.] 

Mr. Speaker, there are two thousand years of adventure and 
conquest in that gaze, and the spirits of the heroes of those two 
thousand years are now looking westward through our eyes and 
thinking in our hearts, and you might as well try to dam the 
Mississippi River with straw or to stay the planets with smoke as 
to stay the westward career of our civilization by a political 
theory. 

The gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Clark] has said: 

No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, 
But the whole boundless continent is ours. 

I would go further, and, in the sublime spirit of the heroic 
Vikings, would say: 



ISTo pent-up continent contracts our powers, 
But the whole boundless ocean is ours. 



[Applause.] 

3532 



THE OCEAN OUR FIELD OE ACTION. 

We are bound to become a commercial people. The more com- 
mercial a people are, the more civilized, the more prosperous, and 
the more powerful they are. In all the ages the most progressive 
nations have been the most commercial. Had it not been for the 
commercial nations, where would the world be to-day in civiliza- 
tion, in religion, in science, in art, and in all those humanities 
that ennoble mankind? 

What are we going to do with this Viking spirit that, like a 
caged eagle, beats against the walls of our hearts? We have no 
more Western Territories to fill up. The Indian and the wild 
beast have been subjugated or destroyed. Our great north and 
south and east and west lines of railroad have been built. The 
wounds caused by our civil war have all been healed. Our wealth 
as a nation is stupendous beyond human conception. 

What shall we do with our surplus energy? What employ- 
ment shall we give to the vast accumulation of restrained enter- 
prise among our people? There must be some outlet for it or it 
is sure to find an inlet. Remember Hudibras's sword that — 

Ate into itself, for lack 
Of somebody to hew and hack. 

If we do not find some vent for this irresistible and irrepressi- 
ble viking spirit of adventure, which has become a part of our 
heredity, internal commotion is sure to happen. The active, 
healthy, growing boy must have exercise, and if you do not give 
him lawful exercise he will take unlawful exercise. What is our 
nation to-day but a gigantic youth longing for grand arenas in 
which to display and develop its mighty energies! The man, 
Mr. Speaker, who thinks that our nation has attained anything 
like its growth is like the man who thinks the caterpillar has at- 
tained its full development, or that the tadpole has reached its 
maturity. 

THE WORLD OUR ARENA. 

Heretofore we have been living to ourselves, for ourselves, and 
by ourselves. Like China, which built a wall on the land and 
used the waters of the sea to keep all other peoples out of her 
borders, many Americans have imagined that we could get along 
without much intercourse with foreign nations, and that we had 
no duties to perform to the balance of mankind. 

For my part, I believe it is both our duty and our interest to 
concern ourselves with the affairs of the balance of the world, 
not in an intermeddling, busybody, impertinent way, and not in 
a bullying way; but when some great national crime is about to 
be perpetrated, when an innocent people are about to be out- 
raged, when a free community is about to be enslaved, or when 
an oppressed race deserves liberty and is valiantly battling to 
achieve it, in all such cases I believe it to be our duty to do all we 
can in the interest of humanity and liberty; and I further believe 
that the God of Nations will bless and preserve us as long as we 
fight His battles and execute His judgments. 

I make these general observations, Mr. Speaker, because I hear 
some member of this House say that we must have the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans as a wall of defense. Ah, sir, that is the old 
Chinese argument I have just referred to, an argument long ago 
exploded. The ocean is no longer a wall of defense, as China is now 



finding out. On the contrary, the ocean is a highway of offense. 
In these days of mighty steamships and ironclad vessels of war 
the ocean is an element of weakness in time of war and not a 
source of strength. We have 4,000 miles of ocean shore, and 
every mile is a highway on which an enemy can attack us. 

OCEANS NOT WALLS OF DEFENSE. 

Away with this talk about the oceans being walls of defense. 
If walls at all, they are walls to be occupied by our enemies in 
time of war. 

A nation that has a coast must have a navy to defend it, or it 
will be the victim of war. See how Japan, a little nation with a 
big fleet, a few years ago conquered China, a big nation with a 
little fleet. In that war China was like a great whale being de- 
stroyed by a Japanese swordfish. So, Mr. Speaker, we must have 
a great navy wherewith to defend our coast and the great cities 
along our shores. Happy is it for us that the present war is with 
a weak nation like Spain, whose fleet is small and poorly equipped. 
Suppose we were at war to-day with England or France or Ger- 
many. I will not draw the picture. The present war I regard as 
a warning to us to prepare for a greater one. 

Mr. Speaker, we must possess the sea as well as the land. Great 
are the people who possess the land, but greater the people who 
possess the sea. Persia, a land power, was great, but Greece, a 
sea power, was greater, although Persia had millions of soldiers 
where Greece had only thousands. Spain in the days of Philip 
was a mighty land power, but England, though weak on land, 
was strong on the sea, and the Spanish Armada was destroyed 
and Spain's power forever crippled. Mr. Speaker, the nation that 
rules the seas will rule the world. 

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 

"With these preliminary considerations, Mr. Speaker, I now come 
to the specific question: Shall we annex the Hawaiian Islands? 
These islands are in the Pacific Ocean, about 2,000 miles south- 
west of San Francisco. Some object to their annexation because 
they are too far off. In these days distance does not always count. 
Time counts. You can sail from San Francisco to these islands 
in six days. When we annexed California it took six months to 
cross the plains in order to get to San Francisco. 

How large are these islands? They contain about 7,000 square 
miles, being about the size of the State of New Jersey. What is 
their population? About 109,000. What sort of people? Ha- 
waiians, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Americans, British, and 
German. But we are told that nearly one-half of the people are 
Chinese and Japanese. That is so, but they are there under con- 
tract as laborers, and are not full citizens, and if we annex the 
islands they will return to their own country. 

How many white people are there? About 8,000, not including 
the Portuguese. Who governs the country? Americans govern 
the country. What sort of government is it? It is a republic 
like our own. And not only do the Americans govern the island, 
Mr. Speaker, but they own most of the island and do nearly all 
of its business. The principal language is the English; and the 
laws, customs, and institutions of the islands are similar to those 
of our own country. 

Of what value are these islands to the United States? They 
have a twofold value to us— first, as a necessary stopping place for 



our ships in crossing the ocean, and, second, as a necessary naval 
station in the Pacific. 

In these days, when nearly all ocean vessels are propelled by 
steam, it is necessary, in crossing the Pacific, to stop on the voy- 
age in order to get coal. There are, in the Pacific Ocean, west oS. 
California, 16,000,000 square miles of ocean in which there are no 
islands of importance except these Hawaiian Islands, which are 
in the very center of this immense area — an area five times larger 
than the whole of the United States, not including Alaska. All 
vessels that traverse this part of the Pacific, whether going east 
or west, north or south, stop at these islands, and, as a conse- 
quence, Hawaii is called the "Halfway House" across the ocean, 
the "Key of the Pacific," and the " Crossroads " of the western 
waters. And to give you some idea of the wealth of these islands 
and their enormous trade, I call your attention to the fact that in 
the year 1896 their imports were over $7,000,000 and their exports 
over $15,000,000. Most of the business of these islands is in the 
hands of Americans and is with the United States, and for nearly 
twenty years they have been a business annex of our country. 

THEIR STRATEGICAL VALUE. 

But these islands have what is called " a strategical value" to 
the United States. We need a coaling station, a base of supplies, 
and a harbor in the Pacific Ocean for the benefit of our war ships. 
In case of war between the United States and any great naval 
power it would be of vast value to us to own these islands. One 
of its harbors, Pearl Harbor, can be easily so fortified as to be im- 
pregnable, and that harbor, fortified and in our possession, we 
would be able to guard our whole Pacific coast, whereas those 
islands in the hands of an enemy would be a menace to our whole 
Pacific coast. 

Naval officers of great ability all agree that it would be disas- 
trous to the United States to allow these islands to get into the 
hands of an enemy in time of war, and we all know they are 
bound to fall into the hands of some nation soon. England, 
France, Russia, Germany, and Japan are all looking with wistful 
.eyes at these islands. The inhabitants of the islands are not able 
to defend them, and they know this, and that is why they ask us 
to take them in. 

These islands being the key to the commerce of the Pacific, their 
importance has long been recognized by all the great commercial 
nations, and several of them have made attempts to annex them. 
They have been seized once by Russia, once by England, and twice 
by France. It has required repeated and emphatic protests on 
the part of the United States to keep these islands from being ab- 
sorbed by some of our commercial rivals; and the population of 
the islands is so mixed and so small that their governors fully 
realize that they must soon become a part of some other nation. 
The United States is the country they wish to join. 

AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN THE ISLANDS. 

The Hawaiians were converted to Christianity by missionaries 
from the United States, and these missionaries soon became in re- 
ality the rulers of the islands. As a consequence, the utmost good 
feeling grew up between these people and ours, and in 1851, and 
again in 1854, negotiations were entered upon bv their rulers to 
annex the islands to the United States. This Government for 
nearly fifty years has been exercising a sort of quasi protectorate 

3533 



8 

over these islands, warning off other nations and giving the is- 
landers special privileges by treaties of reciprocity. 

The fact is the Hawaiian Islands have for fifty years been 
developing into an American comnmnity. Not only are Amer- 
icans the owners of most of the property and the business of the 
islands, but the English language is the principal language spoken 
and the only language taught in the schools. An American in 
Honolulu would feel that he was in his own country, as on every 
side he would hear his own language spoken and would see all the 
other evidences of Americanism. 

During President Harrison's Administration a treaty was ne- 
gotiated annexing these islands to the United States, and the 
American flag was raised over them; but the Senate failed to 
ratify the treaty, and when Mr. Cleveland became President he 
withdrew the treaty and had our flag hauled down. This act, 
prompted, no doubt, by political malice, caused a widespread feel- 
ing of anger and humiliation throughout the United States, and 
contributed no little to the defeat of the Democratic party in the 
last campaign. 

One of President McKinley's first acts after his inauguration 
was to negotiate another treaty of annexation, but the Senate 
having failed to ratify the same, the joint resolution now under 
discussion has been introduced "accepting, ratifying, and con- 
firming" the cession o£ these islands to the United States, and the 
question now is, Shall we vote for this resolution? 

OPINIONS Or AMERICAN STATESMEN. 

The importance of these islands to the United States has been 
recognized by nearly all of our greatest statesmen for the last 
fifty years. In 1842 Daniel Webster, the great Whig Secretary of 
State, said: 

The United States * * * are more interested in the fate of the islands 
and their government than any other nation can he. 

In 1843 Secretary of State Legare said: 

"We might even feel justified, consistently with our own principles, in in- 
terfering by force to prevent its [Hawaii's] falling into the hands of one of 
the great powers of Europe. 

In 1850 John M. Clayton, then Secretary of State, said: 

We could never with indifference allow them [the Hawaiian Islands] to 
pass under the dominion or exclusive control of any other power. 

In 1851 Daniel Webster, again Secretary of State, said: 

The Government of the United States * * * can never consent to see 
these islands taken possession of by either of the great commercial powers 
of Europe. 

And when the French were threatening to take possession of 
them Webster said: 

I trust the French will not take possession; but if they do, they will be dis- 
lodged, if my advice is taken, if the whole power of the Government is re- 
quired to do it. 

In 1853 William L. Marcy, the great Democratic Secretary of 
State, said: 

It seems to be inevitable that they [these islands] must come under the 
control of this Government. 

And he authorized our minister at Honolulu to negotiate a 
treaty of annexation. 

In 1867 William H. Seward, the first great Republican Secretary 
of State, said: 

A lawful and peaceful annexation of the islands to the United States, with 
the consent of the people, * * * is deemed desirable by this Government. 
3532 



In 1881 James G. Blaine, then Secretary of State, spoke of these 
islands as "the key to the dominion of the American Pacific," and 
he looked forward to the day when they wonld become a part of 
the United States. 

In 1888 Thomas F. Bayard, the great mugwump Secretary of 
State, referring to the reciprocity treaties with these islands, said: 

A political union -would logically and naturally follow, in course of time, 
the commercial union and dependence which were thus assured. * * * It 
was simply a matter of waiting until the apple should ripen and fall. 

And yet, Mr. Speaker, after these mighty giants of American 
statesmanship have thus so often and so solemnly declared that 
the Hawaiian Islands are necessary for our welfare, a lot of pigmy, 
latter-day politicians have the effrontery to come forward in the 
light of day and declare that not only do we not need these islands, 
but that their acquisition would be extremely hurtful! 

Do these Democrats who are antagonizing the annexation of 
these islands know that all of their Presidents for the last fifty 
years have favored their acquisition, except Grover Cleveland? 
[Laughter.] Surely you have left good company and joined the 
bad! 

OBJECTIONS TO ANNEXATION. 

What are the objections urged against annexation? I feel like 
apologizing to the House for consuming its time in mentioning 
them. 

One objection is that Washington and Jefferson warned us 
against "entangling alliances with foreign nations." Now, in 
the first place, a treaty of annexation is not an ' ' alliance " any more 
than a marriage is a partnership. And if it be an " alliance," it is 
just such an "alliance " as Jefferson himself favored when he an- 
nexed Louisiana, and as Eolk favored when he annexed Texas and 
California. In the next place, Hawaii is noia ' ' foreign nation " in 
the sense intended by Washington and Jefferson, for it is inhab- 
ited largely by Americans, it is controlled by Americans, its lan- 
guage, religion, laws, customs, and institutions are all American, 
and it is no more " foreign " than was Texas when it was annexed, 
and not half so " foreign " as Louisiana, Florida, California, and 
Alaska when they were annexed. 

Another objection is that the people of the islands have not given 
their consent to annexation. To that I answer that the President 
of the islands and his Cabinet and his Legislature have all unani- 
mously consented, and, indeed, have actually requested annexation. 
The people have consented through their Government, just as our 
people will consent through their Government. 

But I want to know of these objectors if the consent of the peo- 
ple of Louisiana was obtained before they were annexed. No; 
their consent was not even asked. Indeed, they were in no way 
consulted, but they were bought with a price as an appendage of 
the land, and Jefferson sent troops there to take and hold the 
possession. 

Did we wait to get the consent of California before annexing it? 
No; we first conquered it, then we bought it, and then we held it 
by force of arms until we had filled it with our own people. 

THE FOREIGNERS IN HAWAII. 

Another objection is that the annexation would bring too many 
foreigners into the Untted States. Now, Mr. Speaker, in the first 
place, the aboriginees are dying out, having already decreased 
from 400,000 to 40,000 in a hundred years. The Chinese and Japa- 
nese are not citizens, and will go to their own country as soon as 

3532 



10 

we say so. This leaves only 15,000 Portuguese, 2,200 British, and 
8,000 Germans, Norwegians, French, and others. These are all 
the foreigners in these islands who will become American citizens. 
More than these often come into the United States in a single 
week at the port of New York, and yet none of these objectors 
seem to object to that. They are straining at a gnat in Hawaii 
and swallowing several large camels at New York. [Laughter.] 

But when Louisiana and California were admitted we heard no 
complaint about admitting so many foreigners. Yet to-day there 
are five times more Americans in Hawaii than were in either Loui- 
siana or California when we annexed them. 

There is another reason for the acquisition of the Hawaiian 
Islands. The President says he needs them to enable him more 
effectually to prosecute the war with Spain. Our war ships and 
transports must stop there on their way to the Philippine Islands, 
and to do so is in violation of the laws of neutrality; and if the 
Government of these islands should forbid our stopping there it 
would greatly cripple us in our efforts to send troops and supplies 
to Admiral Dewey at Manilla. Let us remember that you can 
not cross the Pacific Ocean without stopping somewhere to get 
coal, and that these islands are the only ones that are friendly to 
us in all the wide Pacific. 

As illustrative of the central and commanding position of the 
Hawaiian Islands, I exhibit this map, a careful examination of 
which will demonstrate the vast importance of these islands in and 
of themselves, their vast value to the commerce of the United 
States, and the infinite menace they will be to us as long as they 
are in danger of being acquired by some foreign nation. 

A NEW ERA DAWNING UPON US. 

We are entering upon the twentieth century. Soon we will be 
writing January 1, 1900. The whole world is in commotion. The 
rise of Japan and the fall of China have revolutionized the East. 
China is now the carcass, and Japan, Russia, France, Germany, 
and England are the eagles. "Wheresoever the carcass is, there 
will the eagles be gathered together." The dismemberment of 
the Flowery Kingdom has begun. All of her cities, rivers, and 
provinces will soon be thrown open to the commerce of the world. 
That commerce is in our sight and within our reach. It is a com- 
merce with 500,000,000 people, one-third of the inhabitants of the 
whole earth. The nations that get this commerce will get wealth, 
power, and glory. Wealth, power, and glory are the three great- 
est objects of human ambition. They are the three things for 
which the Vikings longed two thousand years ago- 
Far in the Northern Land, 
By the wild Baltic's strand— 

and these are the three things that have prompted their descend- 
ants to brave the seas and storm the lands, following the "star 
of empire " as westward it took its way; and these are the three 
great prizes— wealth, power, and glory — that thrill the spirit, 
shape the will, and propel the footsteps of those sons of adven- 
ture and evangelists of enterprise to be found by the thousands 
in every State of our Union; and newspaper men may write as 
they may, lecturers may declaim as they will, politicians may re- 
solve as they choose, and Congresses and legislatures may enact as 
they prefer, but the old Viking spirit is in the land. It is the 
controlling spirit of our people. It is bound to have its way. 




«f c. 



12 

"Manifest destiny" is its platform, its watchword, its faith, and 
its battle cry; and impelled by this spirit and this principle the 
people of the United States are even now taking a new departure, 
and whether it was the overthrow and dismemberment of China, 
or the thunder of the conquering guns of Dewey, proclaiming an 
American victory at the other end of the world, or whether it 
was the striking of the grand Clock of Destiny in the fullness of 
time, be the cause what it may, the American people have resolved 
to plant their footsteps on the sea and ride upon the storm. [Ap- 
plause.] We are sworn in our hearts to compete for the com- 
merce of the Pacific Ocean, and having so sworn, the annexation 
of the Hawaiian Islands and the completion of the Nicaraguan 
Canal become certainties. 

THE NICARAGUAN CANAL. 

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we must not only annex Hawaii; we must 
also construct the Nicaraguan Canal, and we must do both at 
once. When the Nicaraguan Canal is completed, California and 
the Pacific Ocean are brought close to the Atlantic coast. The 
East and West shake hands. This canal unites our two great 
oceans as the ligament united the Siamese twins. It operates like 
magic to bring our Atlantic coast 10,000 miles nearer to our Pacific 
coast, and our Pacific coast 10,000 miles nearer to our Atlantic 
coast. It brings Europe 7,000 miles nearer to California, and 
brings Asia 6,000 miles nearer to New York. It revolutionizes 
the commerce of the world. It does away with a voyage of 14,000 
miles around the great continent of South America, and puts in 
its place a voyage of 147 miles. 

This canal we are bound to build. The necessities of commerce 
require it. Our national welfare demands it. It will double the 
effective force of our Navy. Now San Francisco and New York 
are 15,000 miles apart on the sea, and in time of war our Atlantic 
fleets can not defend our Pacific coast, nor can our Pacific fleet 
defend our Atlantic. This canal brings these fleets together and 
thus doubles our war power on the sea. 

There are three great keys to the commerce of the world — the 
Suez Canal, the Nicaraguan Canal, and the Hawaiian Islands. Give 
us the latter two, and no dream of national greatness that ever 
illumined a patriot's mind will equal the transcendent commer- 
cial greatness of our country. 

The ocean is. God's great highway. Any man can use it who 
owns a ship. Any nation can use it that has a fleet. No tolls are 
charged. There are no tunnels to build, no cuts to make, no fills 
to keep up, no cross- ties, no rails, no side tracks, no switches, no 
culverts, no bridges, but one wide, smooth, level road, open to all 
and free to all, without money and without price. 

The Nicaragua Canal completed and the Hawaiian Islands an- 
nexed, the Book of Fate is closed and sealed; our supremacy of 
the seas is assured; the oceans become our domain; the dream of 
the Vikings is realized. God gives us the Hawaiian Islands, but 
He requires us to construct the canal ourselves. 

ANNEXATION OUR FIXED POLICY. 

We are told by some of our Democratic brethren that annexation 
is a dangerous policy and is a road that leads to national destruc- 
tion. Mr. Speaker, this annexation road is not a new one, it is an 
old one, and not only an old one, but one blazed out and built and 
first traveled by Thomas Jefferson, the father of the Democratic 
party, when he annexed Louisiana in 1803; it was traveled by J ames 

3532 



13 

Monroe, another Democrat, in 1819, when he annexed Florida; it 
was traveled by James K. Polk, another Democrat, when, in 1845, 
he annexed Texas, and in 1848, when he annexed California; and 
it was traveled by Franklin Pierce, another Democrat, in 1853, 
when he made the Gadsden purchase in Arizona. 

And yet, Mr. Speaker, to hear the Democrats on this floor de- 
nounce the policy of annexation and predict calamity as its result 
would make one think that nothing was more distasteful to 
Democracy than annexation. And by a strange irony of fate 
many of the opponents— indeed, a majority of the members on this 
floor— who are opposing annexation actually represent annexed 
territory, and would never have been American citizens, much 
less American Congressmen, had it not been for this very policy 
of annexation! And now for these members to antagonize annex- 
ation is almost as bad as to abuse their own mother for giving 
them birth, and a great deal worse than abusing the ship that 
carries us to a haven of safety and happiness. 

No, Mr. Speaker, the policy of annexation has given us all the 
territory we possess north of Florida and west of the Mississippi. 
Let me give some figures on this subject: 

Square miles. 

Louisiara, annexed in 1803 1,182,752 

Florida, annexed in 1819 - 59,268 

Texas, annexed in 1845 274,356 

California, annexed in 1848... 522,568 

Gadsden tract, annexed in 1853 43.535 

Alaska, annexed in 1867. 577,390 

Total . 2,659,869 

Original 13 States ■__ 815,615 

You will thus see, Mr. Speaker, that the area of the original 
thirteen colonies was only 815,615 square miles, while the area of 
the country acquired by annexation is 2,659,869 square miles. 

PROPHETS OF EVIL. 

And yet after our national domain has been thus increased more 
than threefold, and after we have been traveling the annexation 
road nearly one hundred years, we hear members on this floor de- 
claring the road a dangerous one and talking as though it was a 
new and untried one. 

There are always a few timid souls who dread to enter upon 
new enterprises. Their imagination is filled with visions of fail- 
ure, defeat, and disaster. They see Anakim and Zamzummim in 
the Promised Land. And so they prophesy evil, and utter lamen- 
tations like Jeremiah of old. They tell us that the Ship of State 
is sailing toward rocks and is sure to be wrecked. Oh, fear not, 
Mr. Speaker — 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 
'Tis of the wave, and not the rock; 
'Tis but the napping of the sail, 
And not a rent made by the gale! 

Sail on, O Ship of State! 
In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
in spite of false lights on the shore, 
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! 
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. 

Our destiny is to become a great commercial nation. Situated as 
we are, with the great Atlantic Ocean on our east and the great 
Pacific Ocean on our west, with a great canal in Nicaragua con- 
necting these two oceans, our people will control the commerce of 
the world. The Hawaiian Islands will become the greatest haven 



14 

for ships in the central Pacific. And when that day comes, as 
soon it will come, men will wonder how it could be that honorable 
and patriotic Congressmen could be found not only to oppose the 
annexation of these islands but also to predict that they would 
prove a curse to our country. 

ANNEXATION THE DESTINY OF HAWAII. 

Mr. Speaker, after all has been said and done, these islands will 
be annexed and will become a part of the great American Repub- 
lic, and those who oppose their annexation will be forgotten as 
those have been forgotten who opposed the annexation of Loui- 
siana, Florida, Texas, and California. Those who prophesy evil 
as the result of annexation will, like bats, go into the caves of 
darkness and silence. A few old fogies still live, but they only 
serve as mileposts to show our progress as a nation. 

Mr. Speaker, we are going to acquire these islands. They are 
gravitating to lis as naturally and irresistibly as the water in a 
river gravitates to the sea. They were made for this country and 
this country was made for them. He who fights against annexa- 
tion fights against the stars in their courses and strives to reverse 
the ordinances of destiny. A grand future awaits us, and a grand 
future awaits Hawaii because united to us. The inexorable logic 
of events has decreed this annexation. Fate has entered it on her 
adamantine pages. Manifest destiny says, " Take them in." The 
American people say, " Take them." Obedient to the voice of the 
people, I shall cast my vote to take them in; and to-morrow this 
House of Representatives will by a good round majority say, 
i4 Take them in." [Applause.] 
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